Wednesday’s Must-Read: a hilarious apology and fascinating account of the etymology of the term ‘fashionista’, by Stephen Fried.
“Fashionista first appeared on page 100 of my 1993 book Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia. I created it because as I was writing about the fashion industry—and young model Gia Carangi’s immersion in it—there was no simple way to refer to all the people at a sitting for a magazine photo or print ad. I got tired of listing photographers, fashion editors, art directors, hairstylists, makeup artists, all their assistants, and models as the small army of people who descended on the scene. This was also the group that, according to one top fashion illustrator I interviewed, had collectively become “the famous non-famous people” at Studio 54.”
Our brief timeline:
1993: ‘Fashionista’ appears in Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia
1993, spring: NYTimes reviews the book and Fried gets ‘bitch-slapped’ by the reviewer for making up ‘corny labels’
1995, fall: An aspiring fashionista/journalist who’s finally finished reading Thing of Beauty starts using it in coverage of the fall European couture shows (Evening Standard and the Washington Post)
1999: Everyone freaks out over the word being officially added to the OED, the official definition reads as:
“a person employed in the creation or promotion of high fashion, such as a designer, photographer, model, fashion writer, etc. Also: a devotee of the fashion industry; a wearer of high-fashion clothing.”
2013: Fashionista has become ubiquitous, and appears “most recently and annoyingly in a bombardment of T.J. Maxx commercials”.
Fashionista is one of those funny cultural descriptors - much like ‘hipster’ - that suffers from the paradox of self-acknowledgement. No hipster likes to call themselves a hipster because the very act of acknowledging that you are cool makes you uncool. Like wise with fashionista - it’s a cheesy word and a sillier label - and anyone who really loves fashion knows it’s not about the labels, but about the style.
